Hi Corky. Beta indicates it is in development. That said, you can still install it and update your system just as normal and you would be up-to-date when it gets released.
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jokerdino♦Mar 30 '13 at 17:32

@Rinzwind I don't think this is quite the same as that. With additional explanation of its relevance, that addresses part of this, but this question is asking about the status of the beta ISO after 13.04 is released.
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Eliah KaganMar 30 '13 at 17:37

1 Answer
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The beta ISO image will always be beta, because it contains a snapshot of packages that existed at a particular time, and Ubuntu 13.04 was beta at that time. (It is also beta now, as you know, though it will be released soon.)

Any version of Ubuntu can contain bugs but development versions (alphas and betas) are expected to have more bugs than released, stable versions. It's possible for a bug to cause a problem installing updates. However, except for possible beta bugs getting in the way (which only rarely happens), a system installed from the beta ISO can be updated successfully.

After 13.04 is released, an installed beta version will become the stable version simply by installing updates (in the Software Updater or by running sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get upgrade, and, if any packages are held back, sudo apt-get dist-upgrade). For more information about this, see:

Your beta ISO image will always be beta; it will never be supported as stable installation media, and the system you get by installing it will always initially contain unstable packages. (And they'll be old, obsolete unstable packages if you install from the beta ISO after 13.04 is released.)

The actual operating system should, barring corner cases where a bug prevents it, simply upgrade seamlessly into the stable version, once the stable version is released.

If you're going to do new deployments of Ubuntu 13.04 after it is released, it's a good idea to obtain a copy of the stable release ISO for it. (Which doesn't exist yet, of course, but will once 13.04 is "released.")